Mises Wire

Week in Review: June 3, 2017

Another week of Trump monopolizing the news cycle, first with a typo and then by exiting the Obama administration’s Paris Climate Agreement. Rejecting the international agreement is not only a victory for American self-determination, but will improve the lives of the billions who were going to bear the real costs of another layer of government regulation. The following outcry from those in the scientific community ignores the basic fact that science — even if it comes to proper conclusions — dictates any and all policy solutions to the problem. As Ryan McMaken notes:

After all, the Paris Climate Agreement isn't a scientific study. It's a political document that lays out a specific public-policy agenda.

Agreement or disagreement with the accord might hint at one's opinions about climate science. Or it might not. One can agree that climate change exists and that human beings have a large role in the phenomenon. Agreement on this matter, however, does not dictate that one must also agree with the political policies outlined in the Paris document.

The two are totally independent phenomena.

Luckily heavy-handed government central planning isn’t the only way to handle complex environmental issues. Climate alarmists like Neil De Grasse Tyson would be well served to stop lecturing about public policy, and read more Rothbard.

On Mises Weekends, Jeff is joined by Dr. Joseph Salerno and Mises Fellow Karl-Friedrich Israel to discuss the topic of next week’s Rothbard Graduate Seminar: Human Action. The group discusses the importance of Ludwig von Mises’s magnum opus, and its continuing relevance today. The book stood as a comprehensive treatise on mankind and society, an uncompromising rejection of the trends of Marxism and positivism corrupting Western academia. If you’re interested in the ideas of Ludwig von Mises, but have always been intimidated by the work’s length, hopefully this interview will give you the courage to open up one of the most important books in human history.

The Mises Institute works to advance the Austrian School of economics and the Misesian tradition, and defends the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing state intervention.

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